


A Fan of Yours

by Pearl_Unplanned



Series: Cap_Ironman Bingo 2016 (1) [14]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Comic Book Artist!Steve, First Meetings, M/M, Secret Identity, Smutless Identity Porn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-17
Updated: 2016-07-17
Packaged: 2018-07-24 14:06:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7511233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pearl_Unplanned/pseuds/Pearl_Unplanned
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve's coworkers throw a costume party in celebration of his new comic series, <i>The Avengers</i>. What he hadn't expected was to really enjoy talking with an unknown man in an Iron Man costume.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Fan of Yours

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Твой фанат](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11297520) by [ho_ra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ho_ra/pseuds/ho_ra)



> [Cap_Ironman picture prompt](http://33.media.tumblr.com/56ceb6780903c97ca2e94e56298f123c/tumblr_inline_n7lm56CgZR1qccvx1.png)

 

            "Captain America, huh?" Steve looked up from where he was sitting. A man was standing there, though it was impossible to tell who with the costume he was wearing.

            His friends at the company had insisted on throwing a costume party to celebrate the fact that Steve had gone from being an artist who worked on other people's stories to getting his own published and making the bestseller's list. They'd invited investors and coworkers and anyone in the public who wanted to show up. It was a huge event, especially with the number of people who showed up. They hadn't been expecting the huge crowd from the public, though they really should have.

            Everyone _adored_ his comic series _The Avengers_ more than he'd ever expected. In fact, his story was already so popular, he'd already been asked about spinoffs, for each of the Avengers.

            Hundreds of people were dressed up as Avengers, including himself. He'd insisted that his friends all dress up as the character that he'd made to represent 'them,' since they were all his inspirations. He, of course, was dressed up as Captain America.

            "Hmm? Oh, the costume. Yeah," Steve mumbled. He should've been enjoying the costume party, but it was all a bit overwhelming. He'd fled to a quieter room after managing to snag a copy of his favorite magazine off of one of the tables.

            Now, he wasn't exactly amazing at science. That was one of the reasons he'd picked up _Futura_ in the first place. Knowing more about science would help him with the comics that he'd been planning for the past few years.

            Those magazines, of course, led him to discover one of the greatest minds of the century, a man by the name of Tony Stark. Now, he hadn't _meant_ for Iron Man to be inspired by the genius. It really wasn't supposed to be like that. But then, of course, Steve knew that it had to be because of the crush he'd developed on the man. He hadn't even officially _met_ him—though, he had been going to a lot of his speeches, along with watching any video he could find online.

            Thankfully, he was able to claim 'scientific research' whenever someone asked him about it.

            "It looks good on you," the man dressed up as Iron Man commented. "Aren't you supposed to be enjoying this party, not reading in the corner?"

            "I'm not 'in the corner,'" Steve mumbled, sighing. "But you're probably right, I should probably be talking to fans."

            "Holy shit, you really _are_ Steve Rogers, aren't you?" the guy asked, and Steve couldn't help but smile at his excitement. It was always nice to meet fans.

            "Yeah, that's me," he said.

            "I thought you'd be... shorter," the fake Iron Man said. "You know, less of a bodybuilder. I thought you'd look like you spend eight hours a day drawing, not lifting weights."

            "Um... sorry?"

            "No! Don't get me wrong, you just don't look how I'd imagined you did," the guy said quickly. He seemed to catch sight of the magazine as Steve closed it and was about to put it down. "What are you reading?"

            " _Futura_... I'm an artist, not a scientist. It's full of scientific theories and ideas," Steve explained, trying his best not to sound like a complete and utter fanboy. "Whenever I write about anything scientific, I just want to make sure it doesn't sound like complete nonsense. I've learned a lot just from reading the magazine every other week." He lifted it up to show off the cover. "Tony Stark is a _genius_. He's got the most brilliant ideas I've ever read. Have you heard of him?"

            "A little," the guy said. "I'm really into science."

            "So then you probably know of just how smart he is," Steve said, and he knew that by now he must've been grinning like an idiot. He handed the man his magazine so that he could flip through some of the pages. "I'm a huge fan of his... You know, he's the inspiration behind Iron Man."

            "Really?" the man asked, surprised. “I never would’ve guessed that.”

            "Yeah. I haven't gone too far into Iron Man's backstory in _The Avengers_ , but..." Steve stepped closer, dropping his voice to a whisper. Why was he trusting this guy so much? He really just liked talking to him. "You can't tell anyone yet, but a couple of the Avengers are going to be getting their own spinoff series, and Iron Man's one of the top on the list."

            "I can't wait to see what you've got in store for him," the guy said. Steve could hear the smile in his voice. "So, are you really interested in anything in that magazine? Sometimes I think it's a bit dull. The writers are writing for scientists, usually, so it's not always that interesting."

            "Everything Tony Stark says is interesting," Steve said far too quickly, blushing. "Uh, I mean, there are some articles that are a bit dry. Hammer only ever seems to copy whatever Stark did, but somehow he does it worse... And some of the writers may want to spruce up their writing a bit. Not all of them are good at explaining the complex science that the scientists are talking about. If anyone else was trying to read this, they’d probably be a bit confused. I know I was when I first started reading it. Plus, the writers aren’t always that good at getting the scientific theories correct…"

            "Sometimes I wonder who proofreads it first," the Iron Man guy chuckled.

            "Me too." Steve grinned. "I've managed to catch a couple of mistakes they've made in writing the articles, just from what I've learned in the past... three years? Whenever the scientists write the articles, they're usually dry, but the information's good."

            "What do you think about Stark's renewable energy idea?" He couldn't be happier that this man enjoyed science so much, just because he was really getting into it from reading the science magazines.

            "I think it's a good idea in theory, but having a giant reactor might cause an issue—if it were to explode, it could wipe out a city, if I'm correct," Steve said. "Renewable energy is always a goal, but if he was able to somehow compress the reactor into something smaller—it would give off less energy, but it also wouldn't potentially be able to cause the amount of damage a large one would."

            "Stark's arc reactor is what powers the Iron Man suit," the fan realized.

            "A smaller version of something like that... yeah," Steve mumbled, shrugging. "That's not bad, is it? Could he sue me for that?"

            "That's a great idea," the guy said, mostly to himself. "A smaller arc reactor. More compressed, with a higher concentration of..." To Steve he added, "I don't think Stark would care. If anything, it's free publicity, right?"

            "I don't know... he's my idol, I wouldn't want to get on his bad side." He wasn't sure he'd ever had a chance to talk with someone about science like this. Not many people were actually this genuinely interested in the current scientific advancements that were going on. He wanted to see this man again.

            Steve froze when he heard fangirl squealing. He shouldn't have been surprised to have so many fans start flocking towards him. It was only a matter of seconds before he was surrounded.

            "Looks like we'll have to finish this conversation later," the guy chuckled.

            Steve looked at him apologetically. "I should've known that I wouldn't be safe back here. Maybe we could meet up soon?"

            "Sounds great," the man said. "I know exactly where to find you, huh?"

            Just as he was starting to melt away into the crowd, Steve realized the most important thing he forgot to ask. "Wait, what's your name?"

            How could he be so dumb? He hadn't felt like he'd been able to talk to someone so easily in a long time. The issue was that now there were so many people dressed as all of the Avengers that he lost sight of his Iron Man. Steve couldn't help but feel sad as he looked around and eventually had to give up the search. After all, he was surrounded by people and probably wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon.

            It took nearly two hours for Steve to meet up with all of the fans, take pictures and give autographs, before the party died down.

            "There was this guy in an _amazing_ Iron Man costume," Steve said, hoping that Clint heard the question in his statement.

            "He already left," his friend replied, and Steve could feel something inside of him break a little. The chances of ever meeting him again were very slim, at best.

            "I didn't even get his name," Steve mumbled, sighing. "I didn't get to see his face..."

            "Well then, it's a good thing he told me to give this to you," Clint said, handing him... the _Futura_ magazine? Oh yeah, he _did_ hand it to the man in the Iron Man costume. "Did he like the costume?"

            "Mine? Uh... I don't know." Steve shrugged, smiling a little at the cover of the magazine. Tony Stark was so smart and so handsome. This was definitely one of his favorite covers. "We were talking about science."

            "Did he hear about your fanboy crush? Because to me, it seemed like he had a bit of a fanboy crush on you," Clint laughed. "He went around asking a bunch of people who worked here until he was able to me. I _almost_ told him that I didn't work here, just to watching him look around for more people... He really wanted to make sure that the magazine got back to you. I mean, you definitely could've gotten another one. Right? It's only a few dollars."

            Steve flipped through a couple pages, wondering why the Iron Man cosplayer was so intent on getting this back to him.

            He froze on the first page of Tony Stark's article.

            _Friday, dinner? I'll pick you up,_ was scribbled on the page, with a phone number following after it. Right underneath the messy handwriting were a few words that made his heart skip a beat. It was a signature he knew all too well.

            _Tony Stark, Iron Man._


End file.
